Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe and Engel v. Vitale

For years, a student chosen as “student council chaplain” at Santa Fe High School in Texas had delivered a prayer over the stadium's public address system before each home varsity football game. After two families, one Catholic and one Mormon, sued, the school district adopted a new policy. Under it, students would vote in one election on whether to have a brief “invocation and/or message” before home varsity games, and in a second election would choose one student to deliver it for the whole season. The chosen student, not school staff, would decide what to say. Students voted to have a prayer before the games.

The school district argued that the messages were private student speech, not government speech, and that attending football games was voluntary.

In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the policy was unconstitutional. The majority held that a message delivered on school property, at a school-sponsored event, over the school's public address system, by a speaker representing the student body, under a school policy that encouraged prayer, was not private speech. It said the election process made things worse, because it let the majority decide whether students with minority views would have to hear prayers. And it noted that some students, such as cheerleaders, band members, and players, were required to attend games, while many others felt strong social pressure to be there.